Life in my kitchen

I know I’ve shared plenty of granola here before, but I have a new favourite. This clumpy, crunchy granola is bound together with peanut butter and pure maple syrup. I KNOW!! The peanut butter adds a light crunchiness I’ve never achieved with other granola formulas – like Harvest Crunch, without the over-the-top sweetness. Next time I’ll venture into peanut butter and honey territory.

I’ve had a big baking sheet of this on my kitchen counter all afternoon, and when I had to leave the house I got all panicky for a minute that I had to leave my new bff, and wound up filling a ziplock bag of it to tuck in my pocket and sneak handfuls of. You could of course spice it up with cinnamon or a pinch of ground ginger, but I kind of like it straight-up. Of course feel free to take liberties with nuts, seeds and dried fruit, too.

Preheat the oven to 325F. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, almonds, coconut and salt.

In a small saucepan, combine the peanut butter, brown sugar and maple syrup over medium heat and stir until everything is melted and smooth.

Pour over the oat mixture and toss until well combined. Spread the mixture out onto a large rimmed sheet pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, stirring once or twice, until pale golden and crunchy/clumpy. Let cool and stir in the dried fruit. Store in an airtight container or in individual zip-lock baggies. Makes about 6 cups.

Just made a 1/2 batch of this (didn’t have enough for a full one) and the smell alone is out of this world. As for the taste – WOW. I might have to hide this from my hubby and kids and save it all for me. Love the idea of adding dark chocolate chips…

Clumpy! Yes! I made a batch of Cherry, Coconut & Almond Granola to snack on while nursing my little one, but it ended up being impossible to eat one-handed. I need clumps. Peanut buttery clumps sound even better. I will have to give this one a whirl.

I made this today and it was incredible!! My teenage son, (who was bitter about the trip to the ‘smelly’ bulk food store), hasn’t stopped munching all afternoon! I added some cinnamon, some ginger and sunflower seeds. It’s delish!!

I have to say, I’ve made quite a few recipes from your lovely site and all have been spectacular. The dark chocolate orange chip cookies were quite the hit at work and I’m planning on “Spilling the Beans'” being my next cookbook purchase.

I made this, and it’s pretty good, but it didn’t turn out like how it was supposed to. I used natural peanut butter and it didn’t melt very well. Or maybe my problem was that I had the temp too high? Either way, I’ll be making it again, it’s definitely tasty!

I made the recipe as called for except I didn’t add any dried fruits. I love Quaker’s Harvest Crunch and wanted it to be as similar as possible. It turned out perfect. A number of chunks but not all, tasted wonderful and lasted two weeks. The house smelled amazing while baking it, and the peanut butter hint was great, although it was a little too peanutty when eating it with just milk in the morning. I’m sure it would have been a pleasant hint of flavour if it was served with yogurt and berries but I didn’t try it that way. Thanks so much! Loved it.